The government has been accused of “cronyism” after an anti-woke campaigner was appointed as one of three new trustees to the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A).
Zewditu Gebreyohanes is the director of the Restore Trust, a pressure group whose aim is to “save the National Trust from wokery” and “return the charity to its charitable objectives.”
On her appointment, Gebreyohanes declared to having canvassed for the Conservative party within the last five years. Previously, she worked on the government commission on housing as an assistant to traditionalist conservative Roger Scruton and she was formerly head of the history matters unit at Policy Exchange, a conservative think tank.
Rosalind Polly Blakesley, a professor of Russian and European Art at the University of Cambridge, and art collector Rusty Elvidge have also been appointed as trustees of the museum, but neither declared any political activity.
All three trustees will serve a four-year term that commences on the 5 September.
Keeley: ‘Public appointments should be based on merit’
In response to the announcements, Barbara Keeley, Labour's shadow minister for civil society, accused the government of “abusing the public appointments system”.
She said: “Public appointments should be based on merit not how much you’ve donated to the Conservatives or whether you work at one of their think tanks. The constant stream of cronyism in public appointments without any public scrutiny or accountability threaten to damage the reputation of many of our great British institutions.
“Instead of abusing the public appointments system, the government should concentrate on real actions to address the cost-of-living crisis.”
Government: ‘Fair and open competition’
Trustee appointments at the V&A are appointed by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and approved by the prime minister.
A government spokesperson said: “All trustees are appointed through a fair and open competition, run in accordance with the Governance Code on Public Appointments, as regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments.”
The V&A told Civil Society News that it “look[s] forward to welcoming our new trustees into their roles in due course”.
The Governance Code of Public Appointments states that “political activity should not affect any judgement of merit nor be a bar to appointment.”
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